We are so accustomed to the notion of evolution that we forget how apposite and utterly revolutionary Darwin鈥檚 idea was. 鈥榮 clear and careful prose in Evolution Revolution is an apt reminder.
The book鈥檚 target audience is children, hence the step-by-step experiments in the style of the children鈥檚 television programme Blue Peter, but don鈥檛 let that put you off: there is some pretty sophisticated stuff here.
Take the worker honeybees with the same father who as super-sisters share 75 per cent of their genes: by ensuring these sisters reach adulthood, more of their own genes get passed on in the hive.
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Winston covers all the bases, from 鈥榮 notions on the origins of simple organisms through to the intricacies of genetics, and he also touches on speciation, shrinking biodiversity, genetic drift, even the ethics of selecting 鈥渄esirable鈥� traits in your children.
I wouldn鈥檛 be surprised if the book inspires any number of wannabe Darwins: bag yourself a copy before they are all gone.
See everything in our pick of the Darwin 200 books
Evolution Revolution
Dorling Kindersley